Friday, 30 November 2007

Here is a hand drawing of a typical lift pit associated with this scheme.

This profile has been used so as to miss the foundations to the existing lift shaft structure.

The draughtsman did not bother to indicate the existing foundations on this section, but they are there.

With nothing in the way, the section in the other direction is symmetrical about the centre line of the lift shaft.

Lots of drainage and electric cables and gas services pipes were found on site so a few dimensional modifications to the Tender Drawing extract details shown above have been made, however this gives you a basic idea of what It is I’m trying to model.

At some stage in the future I want to add the reinforcement details.

Here is a screen dump of my first floor plan.

I altered the scale from 1:100 to 1:50 to reduce the size of the grid bubbles so they became a little smaller on the screen and more in keeping with the size of the detail.

Whilst taking this screen dump I noticed that the Grid Line Bubble (A) did not line up with the others, so I fixed it, now they all line up.

The bending / moving of the Grid Line to move the Bubbles apart was shown in a CADClip so I followed the example I had seen.

Having seen Daryl take sections in his CADclip videos, I then decided to cut a section between grid lines 1 and 2 looking up the page. The section is shown below

To begin with the columns looked short and stubby. Until I realised that I had to drag down the view area so that I could see the Ground Level. In fact I dragged the box down further so that I could see the pit and top of the pile foundations that I was about to model.

I selected the Ground Level Structural Wall then Basics and Structural Wall

Looking at the walls available, the best fit I could find was Basic Wall: Exterior – 300mm Concrete.

The wall I wish to detail is only 200mm thick, so I clicked on the Element Properties button

This gave me the Element Properties dialogue shown above

I then selected Edit / New… to get the Type Properties dialogue below

Hitting the Duplicate Button

I named the Type as Exterior – 200mm Concrete and hit the Value Edit… button to alter the width from 300 to 200

I forgot to alter the Base Offset from -4000 to -1200, so once drawn and viewed in 3D, I had to select the walls, then right clicked, Properties and altered the Base Offset dimension.

Now at least my structure is starting to look as if something might be holding it up

Looking at this view there are a couple of things that went through my mind:-

1) The tops of the concrete columns Top Offset needs to moved down so that the columns protrude into the concrete slab by 50mm – Ummm need to check that this actually will show in a section.

2) This then also starts me thinking about showing or modelling the kicker to the walls….. Ummmm something else to look at.

3) Must recall how to turn off the structural framing lines in the view – seen it in one of the CADClips but can’t recall which one

4) I have drawn the steel columns as having a joint at each floor level. Actually they are much longer (just over two floors high) and have connections above the floor level not in line with it. Is it worth tweaking? Can I model the connection details? How and would it affect the design model?

5) At the moment the 1st floor slab is the wrong material and the wrong profile, as it has a sloping bottom. I know this, but wanted to get something drawn and will come back to this later.

Here is what the profile of the slab should look like looking at Flank Elevation.
6) I also will need to tweak the bottom of the steel columns and add baseplates

So I feel like I’m climbing this big knowledge tree. I’m kind of getting up the trunk and can now see all these main branches with many other branches off them and twigs coming off

Next time…..

The base slab, pile cap, and piles then adding the beam thickening to the top of the walls…

Monday, 5 November 2007

Having now talked to one of the committee members of the Official UK Revit User Group, it would seem that they are not getting very much help from Autodesk in terms of assistance with funding to get the ball rolling in the UK.

It would appear that getting the UK Revit User Group going is like pushing a car up a hill, with the hand brake on and the wind in your face. Being on the steering committee for the BAPD, I can sympathise with them completely.

IMHO by now there should be at least a forum for UK Revit Users, one would think that Autodesk would stop sitting on their hands with their thumbs up their _ _ _ _ and at least fund a dedicated UK forum. (memo to self – pursue this and report back)

The UK User Group committee wanted a list of purchasers of REVIT in the UK so that they could market to the end users directly, but Autodesk consider this as sensitive marketing information and will not share. (Boo, Boo, Hiss, Hiss, their behind you…. well it is coming up to Pantomime Season)

I’m told they also tried engaging some of the top Autodesk Value Added Resellers (VAR’s), and Premier Solutions Providers (PSP’s) who were interested however, they have to be careful as it’s Autodesk game and they don’t want them taking the ball away if they don’t keep strictly within the guidelines set down by big brother, who wants to see Official User Groups created.

I posted a message on the AUGI Revit Structure General forum for other UK users and got one reply! Thank you Michael Boyd for answering you’re a star.

OK I know REVIT Structure is quite young, but I did expect more than one reply!

Micheal seem to think that you lot are just shy (at the time of writing this 91 people have looked at the forum post, but only Michael has replied.

It would be great for REVIT users of all the flavours (Architect, Structure and MEP) in the UK, to have an Active UK forum and User Group.

It would appear that there is a lot in common between the REVIT flavours. Indeed the AUGI have recently created two additional forums where common posts may be made (see previous post)

The AUGI world wide community have been great at helping me with my questions, but as a UK user area I really want is:-

Local User group meetings with other users in my area (even if this means having to meet with other anoraks down the pub, drink a couple beers and talk Revit)

Somewhere I can get hold of UK specific project examples

Have access to completed real UK based projects

Build a dedicated UK wish-list and become more than a lone UK voice in the wind

Have a UK Family sharing area for posting and downloading UK specific content.

The UK User Group web site also talks about these in “Coming soon to this web site” This was why I telephoned one of the committee members in the first place, because after two weeks I had not received a reply to my email with the question “when is it coming?”.

The UK Revit User Group, also want to include:-

Tips and tricks section

Links to Revit specific sites of interest

UK specific templates

So why aren’t some of these areas there already? I know there are only four members on the committee, but it’s no good bleating about Autodesk if you can’t even add (Using Buzzword Bingo terms) “Low Hanging Fruit” like a tips and tricks or a links page.

Having recently built the Revit Links Page on my cadalot web site this just takes time, not money. “Coming Soon” is just too open ended, for the “Supreme Beings” sake (How PC is that - VBG) set a target and communicate it with the people that visit your web site.

So enough is enough, Not being one for sitting on hands with my…..you know what I mean ;0), and, being an ex-Generic CADD user so my thoughts on Autodesk go something like

“Doing business with Autodesk is like making love with a condom on, it gives one a sense of security and safety whilst being screwed”

I don’t care how commercially sensitive your names and address may be to Autodesk, let’s build some Local Unofficial Revit User groups in the UK. But you’re not going to be able to do that unless we build a list of users, so….

I’ve added the UK Revit Register Page to the Revit area of my cadalot web site. (Link updated to the new location for the UK Revit Register)

Please don’t be shy, help build a list of UK Revit users that the Official UK User Group can use. I’ve even set it up by area so that you can find other Revit Users local to you, so that perhaps you can start your own Unofficial Local Revit Group that could have that couple of beers down the pub once in a while and talk Revit.

Remember, you will only get out of this what you put into it, so email me your details and let’s get the ball rolling.